Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
- 46 The Medical Market place, the Patient, and the Absence of Medical Ethics in Early Modern Europe and North America
- 47 The Legal and Quasilegal Regulation of Practitioners and Practice in the United States
- 48 The Ethics of Experimenting on Animal Subjects
- 49 The Ethics of Experimenting on Human Subjects
- 50 The Historical Development of International Codes of Ethics for Human Subjects Research
- 51 International Ethics of Human Subjects Research in the Late Twentieth Century
- B Medical Ethics, Imperialism, and the Nation-State
- C Medical Ethics and Health Policy
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
50 - The Historical Development of International Codes of Ethics for Human Subjects Research
from Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Ethical and Legal Regulation of Medical Practice and Research
- 46 The Medical Market place, the Patient, and the Absence of Medical Ethics in Early Modern Europe and North America
- 47 The Legal and Quasilegal Regulation of Practitioners and Practice in the United States
- 48 The Ethics of Experimenting on Animal Subjects
- 49 The Ethics of Experimenting on Human Subjects
- 50 The Historical Development of International Codes of Ethics for Human Subjects Research
- 51 International Ethics of Human Subjects Research in the Late Twentieth Century
- B Medical Ethics, Imperialism, and the Nation-State
- C Medical Ethics and Health Policy
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Experiments on humans have been conducted since antiquity. The practices enjoyed a resurgence in the seventeenth century, becoming even more prevalent from the mid-eighteenth century onward (Howard-Jones 1982; Lederer 1995; Rothman 1995; see Chapter 49). The reasons for this renaissance were manifold, cultural, and medical. To stay within medicine: The discovery of the circulation of blood in the first half of the seventeenth century prompted physiological studies, including the intravenous application of traditional drugs. Effects of new drugs began to be tested in various ways in the eighteenth century (Maehle 1999a) and, about the same time, new surgical procedures were comparatively evaluated (Tröhler 2000a; Chalmers et al. 2003). Perhaps the most prominent of these early modern trials were those involving inoculation for smallpox, a series of experiments in preventive medicine implemented throughout Europe (Rusnock 2002). During this period no distinction was made between nontherapeutic studies aimed at understanding bodily functions in health and disease, and therapeutic studies testing (new) diagnostic, preventive, or therapeutic interventions relative to professional care. This chapter examines the history of the perception of the ethical dimensions of human experimentation and the origins of its regulation through international ethics codes.
“FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD”: LITTLE REGULATION OF HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II
Under the ancien régime, doctors had little difficulty finding patient–subjects with whom to work. Hierarchical societies with impoverished lower social orders were filled with people who could be commanded or paid to undergo experimental procedures, even if they did not understand them.
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- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics , pp. 566 - 575Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008